Hello, the TV-side of FanFiction!

You probably don't know me, since I usually (always) write FanFiction for anime shows. I had a cute idea for OUAT, so I thought why not? There's great characters in this show, and I wanted the chance to play around with them!

I'll write this story faster if I get a great response for it. Otherwise, I'll be casually updating. (i.e. review a lot if you want it updated!) I'm not asking for reviews to be obnoxious or cocky. I know I have a lot of people wanting to read my anime stories, so I wouldn't want to take time from them for this. That's all :) So let me know you love me too and...

Let me know what you like, what should change, any ideas you have. I love feedback! It makes me a better writer.

FYI: This story is set in a High School AU. Some things may be OOC or mixed around from the show.

I don't own Once Upon a Time or any songs, franchises, etc I mention unless otherwise stated.

Chapter 1

Emma looked into her mirror, trying to find the perfection everyone saw in her. She would often look at her round face, thin frame, and dark eyes, wondering what was so great about her. She rarely found any answers.

"Are you ready to go?" Henry, Emma's younger brother, said, knocking on her bedroom door.

Emma opened her door and smiled at her brother, who looked both nervous and excited. She ruffled his hair and said, "Are you ready for your first day of high school?"

Henry began to ramble about how he and his best friend, Anna, had the same classes. Emma knew this, of course, because Henry had been talking about it since he received his class schedule in the mail two weeks before.

In the kitchen, Emma's parents were enjoying breakfast. Her father was wearing his cop uniform, sipping a cup of coffee. He had already finished his plate, while his mother was just starting to eat hers. She was wearing a long sundress with a sweater, her usual outfit while teaching her elementary classes.

"Is Neal picking you up?" her father, David, asked.

"No, Dad, I always go with Belle on the first day, remember?" Emma said.

Despite having a boyfriend for the past seven months, Emma refused to have him drive her to school. She had always went to school with her best friend, Belle, on the first day of school. The only time she planned on breaking the tradition would be next year, if Emma couldn't get away from college to drive Belle to her first day of her senior year.

"Be careful," her mother, Mary, said.

"Always," Emma and Henry said at the same time.

The siblings left the house, their backpacks slung over their shoulders. They began walking two houses down the street. As they were crossing, Belle ran through one of the neighbor's yards, a bagel half in each hand. She lived on the next street over. She lit up when she saw Emma, her backpack sliding off her shoulder in the process. Henry ran over to catch it, and he gasped when he felt how heavy it was.

"Sorry," Belle apologized. She put one bagel half in her mouth so she could take her backpack from Henry. After throwing it in the backseat of her car, she turned to Emma and said, "Little Henry hasn't had the pleasure of feeling concrete happiness."

"Belle reads a lot of books," Emma exclaimed to her confused brother. She got into the front seat, and Henry sat behind her.

"Concrete happiness," Belle repeated, making Emma laugh.

X

Storybrooke High School was small enough to either have one large or two smaller classes for every subject. Science was usually broken-up into two smaller classes. Emma had environmental biology before lunch with half of the seniors.

Emma didn't know which of her friends had science with her; she never bothered to match her schedules with everyone, since she had least had one friend in each class. When she entered the science lab, she was pleasantly surprised to see her boyfriend, Neal, in the room. She also noticed Will, a childhood friend she rarely spoke to anymore. She offered him a small smile before making her way to the seat beside Neal.

"Miss Swan," Mr. Cassidy, the teacher, called.

Emma's heart began to beat faster as she walked up to her teacher. She was never nervous around teachers, but Mr. Cassidy was one of the hardest teachers in the school. He was a nice enough man, but he was very difficult to please. He seemed to know everything about everything, even subjects beyond biology.

He was also Neal's father.

"Yes, Mr. Cassidy?" she said, standing a foot away from his desk. She didn't want to come any closer. She was scared of men with too much power, and a man who could both fail her and end her relationship had too much power over her.

"I would like to make a request about your seating arrangement," Mr. Cassidy said.

Emma's heart calmed down slightly. She knew she wasn't in trouble, which was good, but she didn't know why he wanted her to sit in a specific seat. No teacher at Storybrooke High, even a difficult one like Mr. Cassidy, required any student to sit in a specific seat. Does he not want me sitting next to his son? she wondered. He didn't ask me to sit in a specific seat in General Science in ninth grade, but I also wasn't dating his son. Is that what this is about? Does he not want us to be together?

Emma's fears were proved false when Mr. Cassidy said, "There's a new student today, and I would like him to sit by someone who I know is well-behaved and superior in intelligence. Do you mind?" He gestured to the table nearest him, where the new student was sitting.

Emma wanted to vomit when Mr. Cassidy called her superior but instead she smiled. "Of course I don't mind," she said. She turned to look at the new student, who seemed harmless enough.

While Mr. Cassidy passed-out the syllabus for the class, Emma turned to the boy beside her and said, "Hi, I'm Emma."

"August," the boy said.

"Yes, it's August," Emma said, slightly confused. Her face heated up as the boy gave a wide grin and said, "My first name is August."

"For those of you who don't me," Mr. Cassidy said, beginning class, "my name is Mr. Cassidy. You will refer to me as Mr. Cassidy only. I don't want to hear 'Cassidy' or 'Dad.'"

"Dad?" August whispered to Emma.

Emma pointed to Neal, who was sitting two tables away. "Neal is Mr. Cassidy's son," she explained. "Oh, and the girl beside Neal is Merida. She can get pretty violent and likes to drink. I'd watch out for her."

August nodded. He scanned the room, seeing if there was anyone else he should ask Emma about. He could tell she was a good person; he could trust her opinions. "What about those two?" He was looking at the very back table, where one boy sat with his chair tipped far back and another watched Mr. Cassidy speak closely. The pair handled school very differently, August assumed. He noticed an air about them that showed they were close friends, so he wouldn't be fooled by the latter's supposed attention in class.

Emma smiled at the pair. "Killian and Will, also bad news," she said. It made her sad to say that Will was bad news, but he did have bad friends. She couldn't understand why she chose to stay friends with Killian after so many years.

Emma and August spent the rest of the class whispering while Mr. Cassidy talked about what he would be expecting throughout the year. If Mr. Cassidy noticed they were talking, he didn't say anything.

When class was over, Emma invited August to sit with her at lunch. He happily agreed, and they walked to lunch with Neal, who held Emma's hand. They went to the round tables at the back of the cafeteria where all the seniors sat. Two people were already sitting at Emma's table.

"Hey guys. Tis is August," Neal said. "This is Belle and Liam."

"Cool," August said, taking a seat. He could tell that Emma had great friends, and he was happy to be a part of the group.

A tall blonde bounced up to the table, her eyes wide, fingers tightly clenching an envelope. She squealed loudly as she sat beside August, thoroughly startling him. "Look, look!" she said, slamming the envelope down.

"Calm down, Elsa," Liam said with a chuckle. He looked at the heading of the envelope. "Columbia University?"

"I know!" Elsa exclaimed. "Isn't it wonderful?"

Neal grabbed the envelope from Liam and opened it. He pulled out a small stack of papers. "This is an application," he said, "What's the big deal?"

"She got an early application," Belle said, seeing Elsa get red with anger and embarrassment. "That's a big deal; juniors don't usually get to apply to any school that early, let alone an Ivy League."

"Spoken like a true junior," Emma teased. Belle and Elsa were the only juniors in their group of friends. "This is great, Elsa."

Elsa took her envelope back and beamed, happy to have Emma's approval. Her sudden happiness startled Emma; she didn't think her opinion was worth so much.

Emma's friends all respected her opinions; her teachers thought she was superior, just as Mr. Cassidy proved; and she was definitely the friend that would make any parent approve an activity just because Emma would be there. It blew her mind every time. Not in a good way.

"Do you want to hang out with us after school?" Liam asked August. "We always get together after the first day."

He thought a moment. "I'm sure I can," he said. "We mostly have everything unpacked at my house, so my parents shouldn't need me."

"Did you move on Pine Street?" Emma asked. "The house next to me finally sold. "

"Yeah, 330-something Pine Street," August said.

"331," Emma supplied. "I'm 319. Liam and Belle live on the next street over. We'll hang out at Liam's, so just come over to my house after school and we'll go over together."

Any other boyfriend would have been jealous of the attention Emma was giving August, but of course Neal didn't care. Emma was perfect and would never cheat. Neal would never entertain the thought of Emma loving someone else.